A law mayors say has been useful in slowing the growth of property taxes is set to expire on April 1 if it's not renewed by the Legislature. Will Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto support it?
(Frances Micklow/The Star-Ledger)

In Edison, home to the state’s most dysfunctional police department, roughly 90 percent of the officers earned more than $100,000 a year. And for reasons that defy logic, the highest salaries are found in wealthy suburbs with little crime. In Closter, a small town in Bergen County, the median salary was $122,000, before overtime.

Why would taxpayers shell out such big sums, especially for a job that typically does not require a college education?

Because the unions used their political clout to rig the rules on negotiations. All they had to do was create a standoff in contract talks, and the dispute would be sent to an arbitrator, who would typically award salary increases in excess of inflation. Over time, that created this monster.

Enter Gov. Chris Christie. In collaboration with Democratic leaders, he changed those rules to give taxpayers a fighting chance. A key provision imposed a 2 percent cap on salary increases, intended to match the 2 percent cap on property tax increases.
It has worked exactly as planned. A special task force is reviewing the reform now, but there is no doubt it has resulted in lower salary increases. In the roughly three years after the reform took effect, the average increase in police salaries was just 1.86 percent, the smallest bump in two decades.

The problem is this reform expires on April 1. Bill Dressel, head of the League of Municipalities, argues that the law must be renewed before then. But the task force is nearly done with its work, so it makes sense to wait a few weeks and hear its report. Most contracts don’t expire until the end of the year anyway.

The question is whether Democrats will stay on board in the face of union pressure. Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) says renewal is a certainty.
Mayors are more worried about the Assembly, where Democrats are more closely allied to the unions. The new Assembly Speaker, Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson), did not return several calls to discuss the issue.

But this is shaping up to be the most important test of his leadership so far. Let’s hope he sides with taxpayers.